Julius Caesar's
campaigns in Gaul (58-51 BC) are collectively termed the Gallic Wars.
In 58 BC, Gallic agitation against the Suevi, a German tribe that had
recently conquered territory in Gaul, and the threat of invasion by
the Helvetii, a Celtic tribe from the area that is now Switzerland,
gave Caesar a pretext to advance his career through war. Lack of
cavalry support almost caused Caesar's defeat by the Helvetii at
Bibracte, but his legions rallied and forced the Helvetii to withdraw
(58). In the same year Caesar's army defeated and killed the Suevi's
leader Ariovistus in Alsace after a hard campaign.

In 57, Caesar
successfully met the attacks of the Gallic tribes of the Belgae and
Nervii and established Roman control over what is now Belgium and
northern France. The following year he conquered the Atlantic coast,
thus isolating the central Gallic tribes, and massacred the German
Usipites and Tencteri, who had entered Belgium. His invasions of
Germany (55) and Britain (55 and 54) accomplished little but provided
much publicity for Caesar.

The winter of 54 and
most of 53 were spent in suppressing sporadic revolts in northern
Gaul. The biggest threat came in 52 when a coalition of tribes in
central Gaul under Vercingetorix (chieftain of the Averni) rose
against the Romans. Caesar finally besieged Vercingetorix at Alesia.
Famine overcame the defenders while Caesar's troops defeated a Gallic
rear attack. Vercingetorix was brought to Rome, exhibited in Caesar's
triumphal march, and executed. Serious Gallic resistance had now
ended, but minor uprisings caused Caesar considerable frustration
during 51 BC.

The Gallic Wars
provided Caesar with wealth, a trained loyal army, and enormous
popularity to use against his rivals at Rome.

Gaul (from the Latin
Gallia) was the ancient name for an area roughly equivalent to modern
France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany west of the Rhine. In Italy,
the Po Valley was called Gallia Cisalpina ("Gaul this side of the
Alps") by the Romans. The Celts, whom the Romans called Galli
(Gauls), began to cross the Rhine into Gaul c.900 BC and by the 5th
century BC had established a fairly uniform culture typified by the
art of La Tene. Along the Mediterranean coast Greek civilization was
introduced with the founding of Massilia (now Marseille) c.600 BC.

To protect its ally
Massilia and ensure communications with Spain, Rome annexed a strip
of territory between the Cevennes and the Alps in 121 BC. Roughly
equivalent to the modern Provence, this became known first as Gallia
Transalpina ("Gaul across the Alps") and later as Gallia Narbonensis
("Narbonese Gaul"). Julius Caesar conquered the rest of Gaul, called
Comata ("Long-haired Gaul"), during his Gallic Wars (58-51 BC). Three
new Roman provinces eventually emerged: Belgica, Lugdunensis, and
Aquitania.

Emperor Claudius I,
who was born at Lugdunum (now Lyon), admitted Gallic nobles to the
Roman Senate in AD 48. He also ordered the suppression of the druids,
the Celtic priests. Native deities were amalgamated with Roman
counterparts, and emperor worship was encouraged. By the 4th century
AD, however, Christianity predominated and weakened Celtic culture
further by using Latin in worship.

In the 1st and 2d
centuries AD, Gaul flourished through the export of food, wine, and
pottery. In the 3d century it suffered devastating barbarian raids,
however, and the Roman emperors' ineffective defense led to the
creation c.260 of a short-lived kingdom of the Gauls. Beginning in
406 various Germanic tribes, especially Vandals, ravaged Gaul. The
Visigoths (see Goths), nominally Roman allies, settled in Aquitaine,
where they cooperated with the Roman general Flavius Aetius in the
defeat (451) of the Huns. By 478 the Visigoths had also acquired
Narbonensis. Meanwhile, the Franks took over northern Gaul, and the
Alamani and Burgundians settled in the east. The last Roman territory
in Gaul fell to Clovis, king of the Franks, in 486.

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